The Unintended Consequences of the Steinle Decision

When Defense Attorney Matt Gonzalez and Public Defender Jeff Adachi chose to make the exoneration of their client Jose Ines Garcia Zarate in the death of Kate Steinle an opportunity to attack the president, vice president and attorney general, my immediate thought was these two young lawyers are fools. They should learn when to keep their mouths shut.

But no matter -- because the real villains in the Kate Steinle story are the San Francisco politicians who made the rules that prevented ICE from removing the already five-time deported criminal Zarate from the country.

These SF pols already had Kate's murder forever on their consciences, what they have of them anyway. Now they will also have to deal with the growing disgust of the American public and an administration that loathes these politicians, backed up by a Supreme Court that will ultimately be on the side of that administration for most actions it might take.

So the appalling Steinle decision will have unintended consequences that I will now predict: